Review: Lunatics – A Love Story

DVD: Lunatics – A Love Story (1991)

Trapped in his apartment due to paranoid delusions of spiders crawling on his brain, sadistic doctors experimenting on him, and a group of rappers who appear whenever he puts music on, Hank (Ted Raimi) accidentally makes contact with Nancy (Deborah Foreman) when he mistakenly calls a public phone booth instead of a ‘talk line’.

Unbeknown to Hank, Nancy has her own particular problems too; she’s been dumped by her abusive boyfriend (Bruce Campbell in one of 3 roles he has in this movie), is penniless and on the run from a local gang, and seems to jinx anything that she wants to help.

Together they try to help each other overcome their problems.

Lunatics: A Love Story is full of humour that may not be to everyone’s taste. It’s broad and ‘in your face’, passes into the damn right silly…and then goes even further.

If you like your humour nuanced, then this definitely isn’t for you.

However, if slapstick and outrageous situations gets you chuckling, then there’s a lot here to keep you entertained.

Though mostly set in Hank’s apartment, the kinetic camerawork and constant series of outlandish set-pieces never lets the narrative become boring or sluggish.

Anything with Bruce Campbell in is always worth giving a try, and here you have a triple dose of him acting it up with aplomb.

If you want some crazy, surreal humour, then Lunatics: A Love Story is the movie you’ve been looking for.

Review by Dave (host of 60 Minutes With) from a disc kindly supplied by Umbrella Entertainment.